There is known an optical disk device having a disk tray capable of protruding and retracting through an opening formed on a front surface of the device. An optical disk is placed on the disk tray protruding through the opening, and then the disk tray retracts into the device, so that the optical disk is stored at a predetermined position in the device. After the optical disk is stored, a turntable moves upward and lifts the optical disk, and the optical disk is sandwiched between the turntable and a clamper. In this state, the optical disk rotates at a predetermined rotational speed by the rotation of the turntable, and the optical pickup moves between an outer peripheral position and an inner peripheral position of the optical disk, so that the information signal is recorded on or reproduced from a data area of the optical disk.
In the optical disk device of this type, there are four operations that require driving forces of a motor or the like: a disk carrying operation that moves the disk tray back and forth to carry the optical disk, a turntable vertically-moving operation that vertically moves the turntable between a descent position and an ascent position, a disk rotating operation that drives the turntable to rotate the optical disk, and a pickup feeding operation that causes the optical pickup to move back and forth.
Generally, among the above described four operations, the disk carrying operation and the turntable vertically-moving operation are sequentially performed by a common motor. However, the disk rotating operation and the pickup feeding operation are respectively performed by exclusive motors. Thus, the above described four operations are generally performed by three motors.
In contrast, there is proposed an optical disk device configured to sequentially perform three operations (i.e., the disk carrying operation, the turntable vertically-moving operation and the pickup feeding operation) by one motor, and perform the disk rotating operation by another motor, with the result that the above described four operations are performed by two motors (see, for example, Patent Publication 1).
Patent Publication 1: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication 2002-93013 (Pages 15 through 18 and FIG. 2).